Oculus Rift bought by Facebook

[Bradbury]

I saw this pop up in the news and couldn't believe it, but it's true. The backlash has been pretty immediate and angry on the part of gamers. Most are worried about what changes Facebook make to Oculus Rift. What do you guys think--is this positive or negative in the long run?

 

[jstep]

Though the Rift has been pitched as a video-gaming device, Facebook plans to use its technology for communications, media and other forms of entertainment. In a conference call with analysts, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive officer, said virtual reality has the potential to be the next great computing evolution, following the transition from desktop computers to mobile devices.

In a post on his Facebook profile page, Zuckerberg presented such scenarios as sitting courtside at a sports event, studying with a group of students or consulting face-to-face with a doctor as potential uses for virtual reality.

Um, yeah. Not quite sure how I feel about this. I think I consider it a negative, but have no specific reasoning. I'll have to wait until they release more info before I can really form an opinion...

Source: Time

 

[Bradbury]

I'm not entirely convinced it was a positive move. The backlash from gamers and game developers has made it pretty clear that it was a bad PR move. I mean, why Facebook? To me, that just didn't make sense. Maybe they plan to use Oculus for some kind of glorified Second Life.

 

[StreetShark]

Facebook has been gobbling upstarts up this month. I'm not surprised that they got Oculus because that means there's guaranteed money to continue development and future improvements. Plus Facebook could help push VR mainstream. At the moment it's mostly a thing some interested gamers and techies are going nuts for (myself not included).

 

[Bradbury]

Financial backing from a huge company could certainly be a plus on pushing it forwards. My worry is that all the awesome things developers were planning to use it for will fall by the wayside. I guess it all depends on what Facebook plans to do with the technology.

 

[MetalSwift]

Facebook could still plan on letting it carry on with its original task like they did with Instagram and WhatsApp. It could just be Facebook having their hands in more pots. The thing is that it's Facebook, though...there's this instant thought that they'll try to make everything a social thing--even though they bought out two social oriented start ups and that should be enough for them.

 

[Outrun]

Facebook has had this unwritten policy of allowing groups they snare do their own thing.

 

[blackbagel]

This has been all over reddit and I don't get why everyone is all crazy over it. It's not like they are going to change the whole development team just because Facebook bought it. Sure, they will change somethings later to try the milk money off it but like there are so many other products like this and could take over the market any second. Oculus rift just marketed it the best out of all the others. Besides, they got 2 billion dollars off it. It's not like they would refuse it because it's a great risk to not take the offer and try to fund it them selves. They don't even have guarantee success.

 

[Claptrap]

I've seen a lot about this but I just don't care about the Oculus Rift. So it doesn't affect me at all... Can someone tell me what is the big deal?

 

[Atropia]

The moment I read this, I was slightly shocked about what was going on with what the reason of such action was in facebook to purchase oculus rift. Bet regardless, not the best marketing move by facebook as I see no purpose that serves facebook with it. Unless it's for financial backup and oculus doesn't become in facebook's control, then I guess it's fine.

 

[canoe]

I think it's positive in that now oculus rift is in a safer position to experiment with different new technologies. Previously, they were a company that had to succeed. Now they have some margin of safety to experiment and test out different things since they're part of facebook. Plus, facebook may implement the technology for non-gaming applications too.

 

[deathbyprayer]

I don't see the point of Facebook buying Occulus Rift, I mean what are they going to use that for? So you can virtually stalk your friends on Facebook? But I guess its great since Occulus devs can be sure that their device is now at a more stable hand.

 

[rmario]

Although I'm not a Facebook fun, this is probably a good thing. FB has deep pockets and can help OR team develop the best VR headset of all time. When companies like OR don't have money they tend to speed things up in order to put the product in the market which leads to crappy products, and no one wants that!